West Seattle Blog… | FOLLOW-UP: What workers are doing at the future West Seattle Junction park site

Thanks to Desiree for sending in the photo and indicating that work is underway at the long “cashed” West Seattle Junction park site on 40th SW between SW Alaska and SW Edmunds. No, this is not an actual park development, according to Seattle Parks. Kelly Goold, whom we contacted to inquire about the work. Goold explains that what’s happening is “the installation of a temporary irrigation system and a temporary lawn – something to make it usable and accessible to the neighborhood.” This job should be done in about a week. So when will the site then be unfenced and “usable”? Goold told us, “When we can take the fence down depends on how fast the grass is establishing. Usually after 3 mowing cycles the grass is established enough to use. So hopefully around mid-July. Goold says the “long-term” plan for the site remains park development, but that was halted two years ago (along with West Seattle’s other two “landbanked” park sites, 48th/Charleston and the expansion of Morgan Junction) when the pandemic put the city’s finances in question. The city bought the site nine years ago for $1.4 million; at the last public design meetings in 2018, the cost of its development as a park was estimated at nearly $2 million.